Lost Roads
by ProjectVORTEX
Summary: Events happening immediately before the downfall of the Earth Kingdom's most powerful city will have a rippling effect on the future to come. At the center of the ripples, is Katara - no longer who everyone thinks she is anymore.


_What do I do?  
What can I say?  
It's nothing new,  
The choice was made.  
_Allure feat. Julie Thompson – "Somewhere Inside of Me"

_During the events of "The Guru"_

"Katara…"

The voice was muffled and far off, as if Katara was hearing her name through water. It sounded strangely familiar – was it her mother?

"Katara…"

Again, the voice, and once more Katara sought her memory for the voice. Something felt wrong. She was supposed to be doing something.

"Katara…"

A third time the voice called her name, this time more impatient than before. Katara felt a touch of impatience inside herself as well. She knew that there was something important going on, but what?

"Wake up, Katara."

She remembered now what the important thing was even as she began to regain consciousness. She had been ambushed by Mai and Ty Lee, who had been disguised as Kiyoshi Warriors. And where Mai and Ty Lee were, Azula, Princess of the Fire Nation, could not be very far behind.

Her eyes snapped open and she found herself staring into a pair of golden amber eyes that gazed into hers from mere inches away. It would seem that Azula was definitely not far from the other two – in this case, she was standing next to her. The Princess watched with an expression of amusement and disgust merged with a haughtiness that could only be produced by a noble-born.

Azula slid back a step out of reflex as Katara came awake. Even though Ty Lee was very skilled at what she did, the Princess had learned that it never paid to be too careful in circumstances such as these. But it was good that the waterbending witch had finally awakened – Ty Lee's attack, though not overly powerful, had left Katara unconscious for several hours.

"You're awake? Good, I was starting to think that Ty had hit you harder than I instructed her too. You're quite the lightweight, did you know that? One hit and you're out like a sack of cabbages. Of course, you were supposed to be awake a few hours ago, but you always had a knack for disrupting my plans – even when knocked unconscious, it seems."

Katara did not need to look at the Princess to know that she was smirking. Right now her first priority was to examine her surroundings and look for an escape. The pressure point attack that had been used to render her unconscious had left a lingering grogginess that Katara fought to shake off. But the grogginess was not the worst part of her troubles. The real issue was that she was chained to the wall, the chains holding her arms apart tightly to keep her from being able to exert her bending ability.

"Azula…" She spat the word, watching the Princess' expression. "I might have known you were nearby when I saw your brother."

A cloud passed across Azula's face and Katara took momentary solace in souring the Princess' smirk. Resisting the urge to strike her captive, Azula exercised her self-restraint and took a deep breath. Just as quickly as it had faded the smirk was back. "Oh, believe me; _I_ was as surprised as you to learn that he's here in town. Trust me, I've already arranged a suitable "homecoming" trap for him and for our uncle – I suspect they will be unable to resist it's allure."

Katara had never considered before that Azula and Zuko were not working together. The thought gave her momentary pause as she considered it. Sensing her captive's hesitation, Azula pressed the advantage and moved in close to Katara to whisper in the girl's ear. "Does that surprise you, commoner? Are you struggling with the concept that you blundered into me and my friends purely… by _accident_? That for all your escapes and your waterbending you wound up here purely thanks to _bad luck_?"

There was no suitable answer Katara could give. Rather than dwell on Azula's idea of fate and bad luck, Katara decided to get straight to the point. Head jerking faster, in a noble but unlikely effort to connect with Azula's and perhaps make the Princess eat her words, Katara growled. "What do you want with me, Azula?"

Nimbly darting around the attack, her captor just smiled and spoke one word that made Katara feel as if icewater had chilled her veins. "Bait."

Quickly, Azula continued before Katara had a chance to catch up. "Or, at least, bait to begin with. You see, Katara, my brother and I share a common problem – neither of us have been able to capture the Avatar. Each time we start to get close he manages to escape. Each trap we set he manages to evade. Now," she continued inclining her head towards Katara and clearly relishing being able to speak before a "captive" audience, "I grant that some of that is your doing. But the Avatar has luck on his side and I grow weary of hide-and-seek."

It was true that they had managed to survive several close calls with Azula and Zuko. And it was also true, and something that Katara had forgotten in the heat of the moment, that Momo had managed to escape and was even now winging to warn Aang and the rest of the group of what treachery was happening in Ba Sing Se. If Azula knew that Aang was going to return here, particularly to save her, then Azula would not suffer from another close call or near miss – she would have Aang in her clutches.

"I don't know about you, but hide-and-seek bored me as a child," Azula went on in a voice laced with sarcasm. "I think that it's time that we change the rules of the game, and you're going to help me do that."

Seeing an opening, Katara took the obvious route out. "So you think that you and your _friends_ are going to fail again when Aang comes to rescue me?"

"My, my, you _are_ one sharp knife." Azula's grin widened as she stepped back to the side of her captive, even as Katara's eyes tracked her automatically. Azula did not care whether or not Katara was confused – what mattered more was bruising Katara's spirit and revealing the depths of her planning and her knowledge. Sometimes it was good to gloat. "I admit that it has been very… difficult… to get my hands on the Avatar so far. Of course, he's had his fair share of "luck" – yourself, your brother, that earthbender who travels with you, and so on."

Waving her hands dismissively, Azula got back to the point. "Mind you, I have every confidence in both my abilities and those of Mai and Ty Lee, but after seeing so many near-misses I have decided that it's best if I cover _all_ possible resolutions – no matter how distasteful they may be. Especially, I might add, your unlikely escape with the Avatar."

"So wait," Katara was a bit confused now. "You're planning a trap for the Avatar but you expect him to escape from it? That's not much of a trap…" Something nagged at the back of her mind, though. Azula was clearly not someone to be underestimated but if she was expecting Aang to escape with Katara in tow, Azula had to have a Pai-sho tile up her sleeve that she was not revealing just yet.

"Oh, I'm sure you're well acquainted with the Dai Li already. Long Feng tells me that you and your friends spoiled his underground facility."

Katara felt herself freeze in place, a churning pit forming where her stomach had been at the offhanded remark. Oh yes, she was well acquainted with the Dai Li – she had seen what they had done to Joo Dee and more importantly to Jet. Somehow they had brainwashed him, making him their puppet and somehow erasing the knowledge of the war from his memory. If this was going where Katara thought…

"It seems that the Dai Li decided to assist me in bringing the just rule of the Fire Nation to Ba Sing Se. Long Feng has provided me with a generous garrison of agents at my disposal and even shown me some of his very impressive techniques. There is, of course, one particular technique that I found very interesting – it involved helping people realize that there was… no war in Ba Sing Se. Very convincing, I must say, to see firsthand what it could do to a young woman and produce a Joo Dee in her place."

If ever Katara had felt true fear it was now. The realization of just what Azula had planned for her left the waterbender in a cold sweat. She struggled against her bonds, seeking a way – any way at all – to break free from them. But the shackles held, the cold metal digging into her wrists as pain lanced through her hands.

Azula looked like the cat that had caught the canary. She took pleasure in watching Katara struggle; even though there was no way to escape Katara would still try all the same, hoping to escape the fate that lay in store for her. Azula felt a thrill of excitement at that very fate as well – though she preferred the more traditional and practiced methods of breaking her prisoners (and the use of traitors was a necessity that still left her feeling like she was soiled in some way) there was something enticingly delicious about this whole situation.

Katara was close to Aang. That much she and her friends had been able to deduce. If Azula could harness that and use it to her advantage then it would be so much sweeter when the Avatar learned that one of his closest – and unshakeable – friends had betrayed him. It also helped that Waterbenders had the rumored traits of being reliable and dependable. Using that supposition to her advantage would give Azula an even greater victory when the time came.

"I thought you might understand," she said with a condescending smile that had a touch of malevolence in it. "I've taken the liberty of accepting Long Feng's invitation and have made you an appointment with one of their "specialists". They were especially excited when they heard who it was that would be visiting them." She tilted her head and took on a quizzical expression. "I can't fully understand _why_ – maybe it has something to do with the chaos you caused at Lake Laogi?"

Katara's only thoughts were that this had to be a nightmare. If she could get even a single hand free she would be able to waterbend sufficiently to fully break free, cause the Princess some serious damage, and escape until Aang and the others arrived. The only catch was that she had to escape before the Dai Li specialist arrived. If she did not, there was no telling what would happen to her or how much damage would be done. All she knew was that the Joo Dees scared her and she had no desire to become a mindless robot that followed orders mindlessly.

Gradually she felt the terror in her brain subside. This was not the time or place to allow her fears to get the better of her. There was no telling when the specialist would arrive, which meant that Katara needed to come up with a plan in the time she had left. She doubted that the Dai Li member would come here to perform his techniques on her. That meant there would be a period of time when she would have to be moved to that location. If she planned and timed it right she could get free from her captors.

It did not take a mindreader for Azula to know what Katara was thinking. Rational thought was overcoming the momentary mindless fear that her captive had just experienced and now she was going to be determined to escape her fate even more. If their roles had been revered, the Princess would definitely have been planning an escape, especially in the vulnerable moment when she was being transported. But the first step in stopping someone from escaping a trap was to change the rules of the trap. Of course, if you changed the rules of the trap the honorable thing to do would be to inform your prey – after you'd already done it.

"Oh, I almost forgot – your appointment is in five minutes. I didn't want you to wait in suspense for too long, and I know the Dai Li are eager to 'thank you' for what you did for them." Snapping her fingers, Azula stepped backwards another step as the door to the room opened, revealing the graceful form of Ty Lee. Ever the acrobat, she was walking on her hands.

Dumbfounded, Katara could only watch as the ex-circus acrobat flipped onto her feet and nimbly approached her. Amused by the waterbender's reflexive cringing away from her, Ty Lee giggled. "Sorry, but we don't want you getting away. I really want to see that handsome guy who was with you again – the one with the boomerang?"

Fingers expertly jabbed and poked Katara in several places. The jabs were painful for a moment before they faded to a dull throbbing. With a long groan that changed into a sigh, Katara felt her arms go numb again. The flow of her chi had been cut off once more and she could no longer feel anything from the waist down. So much for an escape attempt…

Another figure entered the room, this one wearing the low and wide hat of the Dai Li. As with all their agents his face was hidden from view and he wore the green and black robes of his order. Producing a small bronze key from within his robes, he reached up and unlocked Katara's cuffs. As she started to fall forward he leaned down and slung her over his shoulder like a sack of cabbages.

Determined to resist to the end, Katara knew that yelling and struggling with what little of her body was left would do her no good. It was better to wait until the pressure point attack had worn off – or Ty Lee reversed it – before making an effort to escape. Unfortunately, as they moved through the dark corridors that had been hewn from solid rock, Katara began to realize just how difficult her task was going to be.

She had the good fortune to memorize the route taken, but that was of little help as they entered the chambers where the specialist waited. She had hoped that they would have to travel somewhere, like Lake Laogi, but it seemed that the Dai Li were at home anywhere they chose. There was also no sign that the numbness was wearing off which meant that Katara was going to have to hope she could resist whatever it was the Dai Li did to their captives.

The chamber they entered was dim and it took Katara a moment to adjust to the low light and see what was inside. There was a chair towards the back of the wall, and an elevated stone track that ran around the chair. Sitting on the track was a simple carriage that contained an unlit lantern. Part of Katara's mind was incredulous at how little there was in the room – how did they hope to brainwash her with such simple equipment? - but another part of her mind was already horror-struck as if somehow realizing already that this was all that was needed.

With practiced ease the soldier sat her down in the chair. Before she could slump he had restraints around her body to hold her upright. Another quick motion of his hands produced a rock strap around her head to hold it in place facing straight ahead. Two more solid straps of rock encircled her wrists and held them fast to the chair arms. Lastly, as an afterthought one final circlet of rock encircled her mouth to silence any protests she might choose to make.

The specialist arrived a minute later like clockwork. He was a surprisingly handsome man who, despite the garb of the Dai Li, chose to wear his hat back to reveal his face. It was hard to believe that someone with such gentle-looking features could be trained in ways to warp and bend minds as if they were an element to be bent like rock or air or water. Bowing to Azula, who had stood beside Katara's immobilized form watching with interest, he focused his gaze on Katara before nodding imperceptibly.

With a quick flick of her wrist Azula lit the lantern. Almost immediately the carriage it was in began to move along the circle. Just like the train that she had ridden in at Ba Sing Se, the carriage containing the lantern moved over the track along the prescribed circle. Crossing behind her, the light moved from right to left across her vision, causing her to blink momentarily to clear her vision of the brilliance.

"Do not resist, Katara," the specialist began in a calm, warm tone of voice. "Trying to resist is pointless. The sooner you accept this as truth and stop struggling the sooner you can find peace." Once again, the light crossed her vision and she blinked again even as the voice began again in the same calm, measured tones.

"Do not resist, Katara. Trying to resist is pointless. The sooner you accept this as truth and stop struggling the sooner you can find peace."

Katara was determined to resist to the end, to struggle despite what he said. There was no way he or Azula would win. If she resisted long enough the numbness would go away and sooner or later they would wear themselves down. When that happened she would break free and escape this place.

Again the lantern crossed her vision and she blinked reflexively. It made little sense to close her eyes as the lantern was just as bright behind closed eyelids. At least the voice of the Dai Li agent was easier to ignore and she did her best to tune it out. Still, she blinked with each passage of the lantern but even that seemed to become less of an annoyance over time.

Idly she wondered how many repetitions it would take for them to give up. Fifty? A hundred? The light flashed past her gaze again and she blinked but did not break her train of thought. Azula would be madder than a nest of hornets when she discovered how badly her plan failed. And once Aang returned to save her it would be all over.

Flash. Blink.

Engrossed in her thoughts, it took Katara a second to realize the flashes seemed to be slowing down. Focusing on the lantern as it passed by again, blinking with its passage, she timed the movement with the beat of her heart.

Flash. Blink. Three heartbeats.

Flash. Blink. Three heartbeats.

Flash. Blink. Four heartbeats.

They were slowing down. Another fifteen flashes and they had slowed to six heartbeats between flashes. Was the Dai Li agent tiring already? Had he realized that she would not be broken like Jet? Like the Joo Dees? Taking a deep breath – not even realizing that her breathing had seemed to slow down to match the passage of the lantern, she redoubled her efforts.

Flash. Blink.

Flash. Blink.

Flash. Blink.

It was not as hard as she had thought to fight against this technique. The only problem was that her eyes were growing weary from all the blinking. Maybe it would be better if she rested them for awhile and saved her strength. Soon the Dai Li agent would tire of this and then she would make her move.

Flash. Blink.

Flash. Blink.

Flash. Blink.

Yes, resting her eyes would be a good idea. She could feel strangely tired, as if she had been practicing her waterbending all day. Her eyes had a strange burning sensation which added to the idea of resting her eyes for a moment. She knew that the specialist had to be running out of patience.

Flash. Blink.

Flash. Blink.

Flash. Blink.

The desire to rest her eyes was overwhelming and she could feel her eyelids sinking down, down, down. A small voice in the back of her head yelled that this was wrong – that she was actually falling under the spell of the Dai Li. But she knew that couldn't be the case for she was still resisting him even now.

Azula had to admit that this specialist was an expert at what he did. Even though she was not bound, the Princess had still found it moderately difficult to keep from falling under the spell the specialist was weaving for Katara. The waterbender's head was sagging and her breaths were slow and deep – both signs, or so the Dai Li had assured her – that Katara was ready for the next stage. Making a mental note to have the Fire Nation look into this practice when she returned home (it would make a great tool for interrogations and planting spies and double agents), Azula waited with baited breath for the second stage to begin.

"Now, Katara, your eyes are so heavy and you want to rest them. There will be plenty of time to resist later, so let your eyes fall shut and give yourself to my voice and my power." Hearing but not hearing the words, Katara obediently followed the command. As her eyes snapped shut and she slipped into trance, the last thing she saw was the lantern slow to a stop in front of her.

It took the specialist seven hours to complete the list of tasks Azula had prepared for this moment. The scroll she had presented him had been extensive and prepared with the help of Long Feng himself, but surprisingly enough only a few tweaks and modifications had been necessary to mold their captive perfectly. Like a true artist at his work, the Dai Li specialist had left no visible traces of what he had done to the waterbender. Oh, she might have the occasional strange dream as her subconscious struggled against the chains that now bound it, but Katara would never truly know the scope of the reprogramming that had taken place.

Night had arrived and wrapped Ba Sing Se in its cloak of darkness when the work was finally finished. Azula's plans were also in place, ready to be executed on a moment's notice. Now all that was left was to assemble the rest of the actors on stage. As for Katara – Azula decided that the crystal catacombs of Old Ba Sing Se would be the best place for her new toy. The entrances were guarded by the Dai Li and the catacombs themselves were a twisting and turning maze of tunnels and passageways. It would be the perfect place to have a family reunion – and destroy the Avatar once and for all.


End file.
